Montessori School of Greater Lafayette Blog

Insights and inspiration from our Montessori classrooms.

It's been a long week for everyone at MSGL and it's only Wednesday. The roots of our beloved river birch tree, which shaded the sandbox for more than 10 years, finally overtook the sewage pipe coming from Building A. The tree was cut down, the sandbox was dug up, and the lovely pergola that Ron Stier designed and built to shade the children has been dismantled. This is the sight today as workers remove roots and begin to repair the pipe. As luck would have it, we received 3 inches of snow this morning so classes were cancelled.

It's not a pretty sight right now on the playground. (Photo by Tony Harvey)

Yesterday, we said goodbye to the river birch tree.

The river birch comes down, one limb at a time. (Photo by Lena Atkinson)

But this is Wayback Wednesday and we have to go way back. So let's take a look back at how we got here. This is the sandbox under construction in 2001. The river birch was planted later that year. It probably seemed like a really good idea at the time.

2001 - Sandbox under construction.

Two years later the children are enjoying the new sandbox. The birch tree is wrapped in black at top left.

2002

Miss Sherry and friends enjoy the shade of the river birch and the pergola during summer camp in 2010.

2010
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And here is a nice photo of the whole area from Summer, 2011.

2011

Certainly one of the most popular areas in our outdoor classroom, the sandbox is going to be sorely missed until it can be reconstructed. But even as we lament this loss, it's good to remember that things could be worse. Back in September, 2007, this was the view outside of Building A.

2007 - Old toilets being removed during demolition of Building A.

Take heart, friends. The water will soon be flowing in Building A and children will once again play in a shady sandbox. And Spring is only eight days away. Have the best possible Wednesday!

This week's installment of Building MSGL focuses on the work of the jackhammer, a tool that was put to much use during the first few months of the construction project. Lots of concrete had to be broken up and hauled away so we could remodel the buildings and install new steps and sidewalks.

Tony Harvey breaks up concrete in Building B to make space for new plumbing for sinks and bathrooms. This was one of his least favorite days of the entire 6-month project.

Looking at Building A as the concrete demolition gets underway.

Later that day, it looked like this. Watch that first step - it's a doozy.

Don Harvey and Craig Lamb prepare to take out the upstairs landing.

As the demolition continued, it became apparent that the light-duty jackhammer they had been using was not going to cut through some of the steps. One parent volunteer took a look at the slow progress they were making and set off to find a better solution. Half and hour later he pulled in with a trailer-mounted mobile air compressor and a much more powerful jackhammer. Tony Harvey said that was a real game-changer for this phase of the project.

"We had a little jackhammer that you could plug into an outlet in an airplane bathroom," he joked. "This parent came back with a rig that looked like Iron Man built it. When we flipped the switch on the big one you could see lights flicker in the apartments across the street," he said, once again, joking. "We had been working all day on those steps and in just 20 minutes with the big hammer, they were dust."

The old steps are broken up to make way for the new stairs/ramp that will lead into the upstairs hallway in Building A.

Just for fun, I am including before, during, and after photos from Building A so we can admire the progress from an old church basment entry to a modern, ADA-compliant school entrance.